Questing Vole

Interested in Electricity, Economy, Environment, and green growth. Why can't we build anything any more?

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

@s8mb Congratulations, Sam!

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

Love is envy, it turns out.

[Tim Leunig @timleunig]

Wow, people in Britain would rather raise taxes on the rich even if that leads them to flee the country, reducing overall tax revenues (and meaning taxes go up for the rest of us). H/T https://t.co/vFcC9sKt3Z @YouGov

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

Terrible.

[Andrew Montford @aDissentient]

Stupid, stupid politicians for causing this insanity.

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

@gordonhudsonnu @MichaelLCrick No it didn’t, it came from Guido Fawkes, who, whatever you think of their politics, are proper journalists.

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

A devastating summary of an awful bill.

[Danny Kruger @danny__kruger]

Thread/
I've quickly digested the Leadbeater Bill, which was published this evening; I hope what follows reflects it accurately. The good news is we can stop this nonsense about 'assisted dying', 'shortening death' etc.

[Montel Analytics @MontelAnalytics]

GB : Today is the first tight day of this winter. Although we are not into the depths of winter yet these high priced events tend to happen in the shoulder periods as generators and interconnectors time their outages to be outside winter.

NESO has issued a capacity mechanism warning notice due to tight margin but this will be removed as their balancing actions come into effect.

The market is tight because we have a number of interconnector outages; NSL is on a planned outage (-1.4GW), Eleclink and IFA2 are offline and IFA is running on 50% capacity at 1GW (so net GB is only getting 1 GW of the built 4GW of capacity).

At the day-ahead for the evening peak (17:00-18:00) in GB, Day-ahead schedule is full export to NL, slight export to BE, full export to DK1 which has caused extra demand in the GB market where generation outages and low wind has resulted in a tight system.

For balancing actions as there is limited conventional generation, Grid has reversed the Britned by 1.8GW, NEMO by 1.2GW and Viking 1.9GW to a total of 5GW to bring the GB market back into balance.

The maximum price for interconnector trades for the peak period (17:00-18:00) this evening was £1030, average price £695.42. This has lifted BE/NL/DK1 markets in the intraday upto €1000/MWh.

Interconnectors are providing security of supply to GB but at a price. When we get into the winter we can expect more conventional generation on-line which should reduce the risk of high prices. ^PH

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

For me the big question is whether in this scenario renewables would *deserve* to get the blame.
It’s all very well that their low marginal costs can lead to low wholesale prices but surely their much higher guaranteed price under eg CfDs is the acid test.

[Clem Cowton @ClemCowton]

Must-read by @James_BG on zonal pricing:

“It is possible to envisage a nightmare scenario for the net zero transition where energy costs remain stubbornly high throughout the rest of the decade and renewables get the blame… the status quo is not a low risk option… the clock is ticking.”

https://t.co/ZvvuReIPDT

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

@CoppiceJT He didn’t say we shouldn’t bother, only that we shouldn’t harm ourselves through indecent haste. If we spend billions without creating net growth/jobs (and this is a reasonable fear) we will have harmed ourselves.

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

Amazing stuff! Though surely still a long-long road to economic grid-scale storage ... unless all the EVs can be cleverly plugged in and made part of the grid.

[Mark Z. Jacobson @mzjacobson]

Only a matter of time until batteries replace fossil gas for electricity backup & oil for transportation

Cell price of batteries in China dropped from $95 to $53/kWh in one year

China’s Batteries Are Now Cheap Enough to Power Huge Shifts https://t.co/Sz8f07ZKf7 @business

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

@James_BG If the Govt is cancelling high-profile FF projects (which is good but anti-growth) it must approve low-carbon ones. You should look into the Aquind interconnector, which after all the campaigning against has now even been revealed to have local backing!
https://t.co/8fCZ3c0FvH

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

@StopAquind Perhaps it’s you who is deluded about what the public thinks. Aquind's survey was representative, carried out by a pukka pollster, with all details published. Unless you can point to specific bias then it could be you making a desperate last throw of the dice! 1/3

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

True this. And we'll need pretty long-term storage even with wind added ... as well as more interconnection.

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

This is good stuff.

[Department for Energy Security and Net Zero @energygovuk]

Under the leadership of @StarkClimate, a top team of energy experts will join our new Mission Control for clean power by 2030. Together they will break down barriers & accelerate progress on energy projects.

@Ed_Miliband explains more 🎥 👇

Full story: https://t.co/q0MHqRTNM3

[Jan Rosenow @janrosenow]

HOT OFF THE PRESS: @IRENA Renewable energy statistics 2024 show 85.5% of new installed capacity in 2023 was renewables (mainly wind and solar).

The share of fossil generation of new capacity has been shrinking dramatically over the last decades.

https://t.co/IP2f256AdM

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

@StopAquind @StephenMorganMP @AmandaMartinMP Labour’s commitments to faster economic growth and Net Zero are really welcome. Both are compelling reasons why it will now (?!) approve the Aquind interconnector! 3/3
@StarkClimate @Ed_Miliband @mayerandrew @Sam_Dumitriu @s8mb @timleunig @afneil @tomhfh @MerrynSW @EdConwaySky

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

@StopAquind So what that an Aquind rep once called the project a ditch? That’s basically true! So what that it donated to the Tories? That's irrelevant now. And the new Government can’t be accused of favouritism to Aquind. 2/3
@StephenMorganMP @AmandaMartinMP

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

Very worrying

[Jimmy Rushton @JimmySecUK]

Russian charges leveled against Kaja Kallas for removing Soviet era monuments on Estonian sovereign territory - something Estonia has every right to do - is a naked act of imperialism and a clear indication Russia does not believe Estonia is a sovereign state in its own right.

[Questing Vole @Questingvole1]

This is good stuff
“Stop daydreaming, build transmission”!

[Michael Liebreich - @MLiebreich.bsky.social @MLiebreich]

Anyone still thinks hydrogen is a good way of making use of stranded wind or solar? Using it as electricity in an EV, heat pump or to displace coal reduces emissions by 2-9x. Even if curtailment reaches *50%*, there is no climate case for H2. Stop daydreaming, build transmission!

[Alexander Stahel 🌻 @BurggrabenH]

Germany has turned net electricity importer on a monthly basis when turned off the remaining 4 nuclear power plants in April 2023.

That is a challenge for the entire European grid.

#electricity